Word of the Day
by jayer
Summary: A single word spins Morgan's day out of control.
1. Chapter 1

"Clooney, stop it." Derek tried to push the pile of overly affectionate canine out of his face. His reprieve lasted all of a half second before he felt a cold nose prodding at him. "Seriously, dog . . . " Derek stopped as his ears picked up on the sound of buzzing. His cell phone, still in his trouser pockets, was ringing. "Thanks pooch, now please go away." Derek retrieved his phone.

"Morgan." Derek padded into the kitchen to fed Clooney.

"Hey Derek, sorry to wake you up so earlier."

"No problem Hotch, it's only" Derek glanced at the microwave, "5 in the morning. What's up?"

"I've got to call out today. I need you to cover for me."

"Aren't you supposed to be doing Flynn McCadden's custodial today?"

"I am. But Jack woke up sick. Jess said Chicken Pox is going around and I think it got Jack. I'd send Reid by himself but McCadden isn't a guy I want anyone alone in the room with. Even with Seaver observing from outside."

"Not to mention that Reid is still limping on that bad knee of his, even though he claims he wasn't hurt getting shoved down two flights of stairs."

"That too. I'd postpone it but it was hell just getting this one arranged."

"Guess Rossi had the right idea leaving on his vacation last night." Derek laughed.

"I already had Reid prep to take the lead on this and Seaver is under orders to observe and stay out of the room. All you really have to do is keep McCadden under control, don't let him spook Reid."

"I've got it. Take care of Jack and tell him that Clooney wants him to come over and play when he feels better."

"I will. Thanks Derek."


	2. Chapter 2

"You kids enjoy your meal?" The elderly woman asked with a smile.

"Yes Ma'am." Derek nodded as he signed the credit slip. "You were right about those pancakes."

"Of course I was." The woman laughed. "Come back and see me again. And bring that boy. I'll put some meat on his bones."

"I'll do that." Morgan laughed as he walked outside, Seaver and Reid leaning up against his car. "So Reid, what's the traffic look like?"

Reid looked up from the tablet he begrudgingly started carrying during work. "No reports of trouble on the interstate."

"Good. I prefer the straight shot." Morgan said as he steered the car toward the roadway. A chirp went off as he was merging into traffic. "Was that my phone?"

"It's mine." Seaver replied. "My Word of the Day app."

"Word of the Day?" Reid sounded curious.

"Yeah. I work with this guy that has a really big vocabulary so I figured it wouldn't hurt to brush up on my SAT words." Seaver grinned at him.

"What's the word?"

"Paraskevidekatriaphobia."

"What the heck does that mean?"

"Irrational fear of Friday the 13th." Reid replied.

Morgan laughed. "Of course you would know that."

"It's also sometimes called friggatriskaidekaphobia."

"After the Norse goddess Frigga." Seaver cut in. "Also called Freya. Friday is actually a variant of Freya's Day, much like Thursday was originally Thor's Day."

"You know Norse mythology?"

"Among others. I took a comparative mythology class in college for part of my social studies credits."

"Did you know that there's no actual reference to Friday the 13th as an unlucky day until the 1860s?"

"The most popular theory is that it's a mash up of phobias about Friday being an unlucky day and thirteen being an unlucky number."

"The whole friday thing generally assumed to be derived from the cruxfication of Jesus by the Romans taking place on a Friday."

"Plus the early Christian Church subjugating Pagan and dominantly female focused beliefs by labeling them as evil and associated with the devil."

"Among them the day of worship for a goddess."

"And the whole business of the 13 lunar months which were reflected in a woman's menstrual cycle, which was considered to be 'unclean' by pretty much all male controlled cultures. Likely due to the association with death, or at least a loss of a potential for life."

"To be fair though, they didn't just pick on the woman. I mean the whole 13 at a table thing is a call back to Judas and to the myth of Loki's betrayal."

"True. And really the whole unlucky thing is something of a self fulfilling prophecy. If something bad happens on a Friday or a Friday the 13th people assume a casualty when really its just a correlation."

"Magical thinking right?"

"That's one form of it. Another is the notion that doing something will make another something not happen. But generally the second thing is very rare anyway but in the mind the lack of occurrence is believed to be due to the first item."

"Or how about the idea that something won't happen if no one says it out loud. But if you say it then it will happen."

"You mean like if I were to say 'I hope we don't hit any traffic on the way home.'"

"Now you've said it." Seaver laughed. "Just watch we'll hit traffic."

"But the likelihood that we'd hit traffic is actually the same regardless of whether I said it."

"Or that it's a Friday or the 13th. Or that I knocked over the salt shaker at the diner and didn't toss some over my shoulder."

"Exactly."


	3. Chapter 3

"Oh come on, Morgan." Garcia laughed. "You can't be serious."

"I am, Garcia." Morgan poured a shot of creamer into his coffee. "Everything was fine. I mean the interview was less than pleasant but it was no worse than any other custodial. We had a late lunch and should have had an easy drive home.

"But then Seaver had to bring up that word and it all went to hell."

"Hell? Isn't that a bit extreme?"

"Extreme? You think calling it hell when you get to endure 3 hours of a double dose of Reid's verbal tornado is extreme. Or how about Reid saying the traffic report was all clear and then after he jokes about hitting traffic we drive right into a dead stop thanks to a jack knifed tractor trailer which turned 3 hours into 5 and a half on the back roads."

"You know correlation doesn't equal causality and despite certain self help philosophies of thinking having an effect on the world there is actually no verifiable proof that saying something will or will not happen doesn't actually influence the likelihood of said event or non event occurring."

Morgan shook his head. "Not you too, baby girl, not you too."

"Sorry, my beautiful man, I couldn't help myself." Garcia laughed as they walked into the briefing room.

"Hotch still out?"

Rossi nodded. "Jack has the chicken pox. Hotch is a carrier so he has to stay home until there's no chance he could infect someone else."

"I never had the chicken pox."

Seaver laughed. "Well you were a child genius who went from diapers to the 3rd grade. No chance of exposure."

"Actually there have been cases of people who were naturally immune to the chicken pox. Or measles or mumps or any one of a number of so called childhood diseases." Reid countered. "And I actually did go to kindergarten and first grade. My father insisted on it. I skipped second grade and"

"Let's get started." Rossi cut him off.

Two hours later they had gone over all the cases they had in their stacks, found nothing in need of field assistance and divided everything else up for writing consult reports.

"Hey Morgan." Seaver called out as they were settling into their desks.

"Yeah."

"So I was telling Reid before the meeting that the theatre by my place is doing a horror film festival on the weekends. We missed the first couple of nights but I thought if we weren't on a case it might be fun to check it out this weekend. You want in?"

"Sure. What are they showing?"

Seaver pulled up the theatre's website site. "This weekend is Friday the 13th part 2 and 3."


End file.
